The bittersweet and inevitable farewell to childhood is a prominent Pixar fixture, seen in Toy Story, Monster’s Inc., or Finding Nemo. But Inside Out tackles the painful road to adulthood with deft wisdom, humor, and grace not seen in their other films.
Frequently in Pixar films, the child matures while our main characters observe them from the sidelines. Sully and Mike of Monster’s Inc. are forced to say goodbye to Boo when she grows older and doesn’t need monsters in the closet anymore; Finding Nemo’s Marlin must let Nemo swim in his own current; Woody, Buzz, and the toys of Toy Story sadly bid farewell to Andy, their former owner who is now a young man, but find comfort in knowing their new owner Bonnie will care for them.
Inside Out literally gets inside Riley’s head, giving the audience a front-row seat to her emotional turmoil as her childhood slips away and she spirals into a deep depression after moving to a new city. The protagonists are her emotions—Sadness, Joy, Anger, Fear, Disgust—and the storyline revolves around their struggle to understand Riley's growing pains.
The character of Bing Bong, Riley’s old imaginary friend and a “pink cotton candy nougat-filled elephant-cat hybrid” that cries candy, symbolizes Riley’s metamorphosis. We see flashback scenes of her interacting with the lovable creature, playing music, running around, and riding in a pretend rocket.
When Bing Bong and Joy get trapped in a dark abyss, Bing Bong sacrifices himself on a rocket ride to the top so that Joy can escape and help Riley. Once Bing Bong is in the abyss, he will fade from Riley’s memory.
Much like the toys of Toy Story, Bing Bing is a beloved childhood plaything that eventually loses an active place in the child’s heart. This heartbreaking moment demonstrates that as Riley matures, she will leave her childhood pastimes behind.
The moral of Inside Out lies in Joy’s narrative. Throughout the film, Joy is angry at Sadness for touching Riley’s memory and imprinting sadness on them. Joy stubbornly wants nothing but happiness for Riley, an emotion that has dominated her first 11 years on earth.
After Riley moves, she starts to miss the comfort and security of being little. Her realization that there is no going back cuts deep. In the climactic scene, Riley opens up to her parents about her depression and they promise to get through it together.
When Joy watches Riley’s happy memories of the past on a giant projector screen, she realizes that memories can hold both happiness and sadness. The sadness that Riley feels is bittersweet melancholy, a nostalgia for a simpler, more carefree time in her life. Riley misses those memories but is grateful that they happened, and Joy learns to be okay with that.
By diving inside the adolescent mind, Pixar teaches an important lesson about handling negative emotions and expressing them to our loved ones. Inside Out is an exquisite depiction of the difficulties we face while growing up and beautiful addition to Pixar's impeccable collection.